Free Web NovelChapter 12: Withering Blue Rose [2]
Mikael stood before Cael’s lifeless body as his heart wrenched with sharp pain, stealing the breath from his lungs.
He collapsed on his knees and clutched his chest as waves of grief crashed over him.
It wasn’t just his, but Liren’s.
Her emotions flooded through him, amplified by her curse.
Mikael had already spent what felt like three long years immersed in Liren’s memories, living every fragile joy and shattering loss alongside her.
In that time, her family had begun to feel like his own due to their shared emotions.
The gentle rhythms of their life bleeding into his heart until the lines blurred.
He watched Liren’s body pass through his translucent form as she cradled her little brother’s lifeless body.
Her screams tore through her throat until it bled.
"Cael.... no, please.... come back..."
Her agony also lived in him.
He felt the blame from the townspeople like stones against his own skin.
The way her heart broke from their accusations.
"Vessel of evil!"
"Burn the witch!"
Her parents averted eyes, their refusal to return her desperate embraces.
The betrayal carved canyons into her soul.
Mikael watched as her parents isolated her in the dark basement.
He experienced every hour with her, her hunger, the cold that seeped through her bones, the whispers of Cael in the darkness.
The betrayal from her own blood cut deepest of all.
’Why? I only tried to be kind...’
Her question echoed in his mind with soul-crushing simplicity.
When the wandering doctor Dorian Voss came...
Mikael finally learned about the truth.
About the plague, the poison, the rumors, and the beautiful, orchestrated cruelty of it all --
All designed just to feast on a young girl’s amplified despair.
Raw fury ignited inside Mikael with her.
It burned hotter than anything he had ever felt. A rage so pure it almost blinded him.
He lunged at Dorian, his translucent fists swinging at him... but passed right through him.
He couldn’t touch him, nor could he stop him, as he watched Dorian bind her arms and place a crown of thorny blue roses on her head.
Dorian snapped his fingers, and flames roared to life.
Mikael burned with her.
The pain of burning alive was almost as bad as the pain he experienced when his Essence core was ripped out.
But that pain was only for a moment, unlike this...
His mind nearly shattered under the assault.
The flames devoured his translucent flesh, the unimaginable agony of living through what should have killed him instantly.
His translucent body flickered as he screamed silently.
’I-If I lose here... I will lose control in the real world.’
The thought surfaced through the haze of torment.
But it wasn’t what drove him.
’I want to save her.’
Not because he could feel her pain, nor because saving her would finally make his own suffering stop.
He wanted to save her for her sake alone.
This kind girl who had never thought ill of anyone, who had never wished harm on a single soul, who had done absolutely nothing to deserve any of this hell.
Mikael threw himself into the fire trying to save her.
But no matter what he tried, his translucent hands passed through her.
But he didn’t give up.
He tried again and again and again.
In that raw desperation, something inside him ignited as he reached towards that flame.
His translucent form shuddered.
Then, slowly, his stretched hand solidified as it rippled across his entire body, until his real body stood amid the burning flames.
Flames started burning his body, searing his skin, but he pushed through the pain and quickly untangled the special fire-resistant rope.
He lifted Liren’s broken and charred body into his arms and jumped out of the flames.
And kicked open the basement door and walked out. Dorian had left the door open.
Outside, the town was empty itself.
The people had already fled, leaving everything behind in their panic.
Liren lay motionless against his chest, her skin blistered raw, and her beautiful white hair was scorched away.
But she was still breathing.
The overwhelming flood of her emotions he’d been feeling had dulled.
Perhaps it was because he was no longer in spirit form.
Or perhaps she was too shattered from inside to feel any of her emotions... he didn’t know.
He was also badly burned, but it was nothing compared to her.
He carried her out into another abandoned estate, finding a quiet room with a bed.
Mikael tended to her with patience.
He removed the cruel crown of roses, thorns, and all as his fingers trembled, and dried blood flaked away.
He remembered the herbs from the game and some from the remnants of Mikael’s memories as he gathered what he could from the abandoned gardens and the nearby untouched forests.
He ground pastes and brewed salves, applying them to her burned skin with gentle hands.
She would flinch when he first tried to tend her.
At first, whenever his hands came close, she flinched violently--her eyes went wide with terror in the rare moments she was conscious.
Her body would curl inwards as if expecting another punishment for the crime she never committed.
His heart ached whenever he saw her like that; he had spent three years in her memories after all.
He didn’t push her and spoke in a low tone while working.
"Easy now... I know it hurts. I’m only trying to help the pain fade a little."
He kept his movements slow and let her see every action before he performed it.
"Breathe with me. That’s it."
She ate only when Mikael fed her as he spooned thin broth between cracked lips. freeweɓnøvel.com
The broths which he made from whatever stores remained in the empty town.
He carefully spooned, one slow mouthful at a time.
At night, when fever dreams gripped her, he would sit beside her and sing some lullabies he remembered from his past life with his musical talent.
The weight of her suffering pressed on him constantly.
Once, Mikael tried to find other people.
He walked the empty road, hoping to reach the next town and find a church or any healer who might help him with Liren’s condition.
But an invisible wall stopped him when he reached the edge of the valley.
’Is that because I’m away from Liren?’
’Or is it because I’m in her memories that I can’t walk further than Silverbrook Valley?’
In any case, He couldn’t just travel with Liren with her current condition to confirm his suspicion.
He didn’t linger there and went back after picking some herbs.
More days passed, and Liren’s condition still didn’t improve.
When he was foraging in her estate, he discovered her violin in the dust.
He bought it back and cleaned it with the soft cloth before offering it to her.
"Here, I thought.... maybe this might help."
Liren stared at it blankly.
Her bandaged fingers twitched, but she made no move to take it.
The instrument lay beside her on the bed like a forgotten relic.
The next day, Mikael himself began to play it for her, sitting beside her bed.
Perhaps music might find her where his words could not.
At first, when he tried it, his notes were rusty, awkward scrapes that made even him wince.
A clumsy melody as he attempted to mimic the beautiful pieces he had heard in her memories.
Day after day, the clumsy melodies filled the cottage.
He improved quite a lot... like holding the instrument steadier and finding a few clean notes due to his Melodic Supremacy Talent.
But it remained far from beautiful like Liren.
Then...
On a quiet afternoon nearly a month in, something changed.
Mikael fumbled a high note that came out as a painful squeak as Liren’s head turned sharply with mild annoyance across her scarred face.
"N-Not like that. You’re doing it wrong."
Mikael froze, and his eyes widened.
It was the first time she had shown any reaction or spoken any words.
He wordlessly offered her the violin.
She hesitated, but then reached out with her trembling, bandaged hands.
As soon as he held it, she cradled it like a fragile child as her finger traced the strings with aching familiarity.
Slowly, she adjusted her hands and began to demonstrate for him.
"T-The bow... not so tight. Let it breathe across the strings... let it flow like a wind."
As she began playing, though weak, it carried the echoes of the girl she had once been.
When she stopped, exhaustion claimed her, and she went unconscious.
But something shifted from that day.
From then on, the violin became their quiet ritual.
Mikael practiced daily, and Liren corrected him more often.
Her instructions started clipped and impatient...
"Tilt your wrist. No, the other way"
But it also softened over time.
"You have patient hands... but you rush the emotion. You need to feel the music first."
One and a half months had passed since the flames.
Her burns had begun to heal into pale scars, and the flinches grew rarer.
She no longer shrank away when he changed her dressings.
Instead, she watched him with guarded curiosity, as if trying to solve a puzzle.
One evening, after he finished reapplying a fresh poultice to her arm, Liren’s eyes filled with tears as she grabbed his sleeve with surprising strength.
"W-Why?"
Her voice broke.
"Why are you helping me...? I’m nothing but a stranger to you. Even my own parents... abandoned me.... they locked me away. They chose the town over their own daughter. Everyone I loved abandoned me. So why do you...? What do you want from me?"
Mikael set the herbs aside and sat on the edge of the bed as he met her tearful gaze.
He took a deep breath, choosing his words carefully.
"I have seen what you went through, Liren. No one deserves what happened to you."
He paused.
"I won’t lie to you.... when I first came here, I did want something from you. But that’s not why I’m still here. I couldn’t just walk away from someone suffering like that... it would break something in me, too. You’re not alone anymore."
She searched his face, looking for any deception, but found only quiet sincerity as the tears kept falling.
"I-I don’t understand you."
He offered her a gentle smile.
"You don’t have to. Just let me keep helping."
As the days warmed, she began opening up in her own small, tentative ways.
They took short walks in the fields behind the cottage, where patches of wild blue roses still bloomed defiantly.
Liren would pause and touch their petals as her expression softened with old sorrow,
But she leaned on his arm for support now instead of pulling away.
During quiet evenings by the hearth.... she shared fragments of her happy past.
"Cael used to beg me to play these silly songs for him. He’d dance so badly it made me laugh until my sides hurt."
Her voice carried a fragile warmth.
Mikael listened as he shared pieces of his own displaced life in return.
Two months passed.
Slowly, her attachment deepened with him.
When he left to gather herbs, she would wait by the window, her fingers twisting anxiously until he returned.
Once, when he returned later than usual after a longer forage, she met him at the door and clutched his shirt tightly.
"Don’t disappear as they did."
She whispered with a hint of possessiveness.
Her curse amplified her every emotion... her sadness, her joy, her fear, her anger... even her possessiveness, her love.
"I couldn’t bear it again."
Mikael didn’t notice it. His heart ached at her voice.
He hugged her gently, mindful of her healing scars.
"I’m right here."
One twilight, they sat together on the wooden porch, the violin resting between them.
The valley stretched peacefully before them.
Liren leaned her head against his shoulder, and her now short white hair brushed his arm.
"I wish we could stay like this forever. Just the two of us. In this town... forever."
Mikael’s breath caught, and he remained silent for a long time before speaking.
"... I’m sorry. But... I can’t. I want to go back to my world."
She lifted her head and let out a sad sigh.
"I thought so.
"I... regained my memories as a spirit a week ago. I know this isn’t entirely real. These are my past memories.... when I was still human. But my selfishness wouldn’t let me wake up. I just.... wanted this life a little longer.... with you."
He looked at her, stunned.
"You knew?"
"I’m sorry for being selfish.
"You wanted the contract, right? That was what you meant when you said you wanted something from me."
Mikael nodded.
"I’ll form a contract with you... But you have to promise me one thing: you won’t leave me alone like my parents did. Please, I don’t think I can survive that again."
The plea hung heavy in the evening air, a budding obsession of someone who had lost everything and found one person who refused to let go.
Mikael didn’t answer right away, gazing out of the valley.
Finally, he turned his head towards her, meeting her blue eyes.
"As long as I’m in this world... I won’t leave you. I swear it."
She pressed closer, burying her face against his chest.
"That’s enough for me. I’ll form a contract with you. I’ll be your spirit. If.... if you’ll have someone as broken as me."
Just as she said those words, a blinding red light engulfed them.
******
(Sorry for the late Chapter. I was down with a fever for the past few days and wasn’t able to upload. Support with power stones if you like the Chapter.)
